0018
Seth (セト Seto), also spelled Set and known as Cyborg 0018, is is an antagonist in the crossover OVA Cyborg 009 vs. Devilman. He is one of the of the "High-Teen Number" (ハイティーンナンバー Haitin Numba) cyborgs developed by Dr. Adams, and a newly-created character exclusive to this OVA continuity. Appearance Seth is a slender, incredibly fair-skinned young man with short, pale silver hair, the long asymmetrical fringe of which falls over his right eye. Similarly, his eyes are a pale blue. For most of the initial OVA plot, he is seen naked and unconscious due to his coma and being kept in a containment tube by Dr. Adams. After the merger with Atun, Seth's eyes become more "demonic"-looking with contracted pupils and irises, he becomes more muscular, and he gains red bolt tattoos on his face. His body from the waist down becomes that of a demon. After Atun takes full control of his physical form, he gains the demon's appearance. When his sister first attempts to psychically free him from Atun, Seth is instead evolved into an entity that claims he is "neither Seth nor Atun", named Azazel in supplementary materials. Azazel resembles the young man, still nude, but with his body draped in a white scarf and a pair of floating angel wings at his sides. In a character design present in the artbook for the OVA, but never anywhere in the actual plot, he can be seen wearing his High-Teen Number cyborg uniform, which is of the same design of the 00 cyborg uniform but in black, with silver buttons, a white scarf and belts, and red seams. As seen in an X-ray of his body, performed by 003 in episode 3 of the OVA, the only organic part left of him would be his brain, as his entire skeletal structure is made of metal, with small wires connecting the chassis to the organ. Aside from him and 0016, it is hard to say how much of the other High-Teen Numbers have been modified vs. retaining organic parts. The fusion of him and Atun also shows this metal skeleton to have been merged with Atun's demonic bones. Personality From the little seen of his true nature, Seth would have appeared to have been a gentle, soft-spoken young man fond of his older twin sister and relying on her. After the merger with Atun, the newly fused Seth/Atun hybrid was homicidal, and willing to kill anyone in his path. He also turned against his sister, which necessitated her having to fight him, and was murderous towards her, with no qualms in injuring her in whatever way he could to gain the upper-hand. As the demonic cyborg hybrid Azazel, he is even more ruthless, bearing deadly powers and a sadistic demeanor despite his gentle appearance. Abilities In addition to the Accelerator and self-repair functions, 0018 was developed as an esper cyborg by Black Ghost and can use various abilities of the sort including telepathy, telekinesis, and shockwaves. In the merger with Atun, his strength became increased and he was able to disrupt his sister's force-field power. When fighting 0015, it could be seen that his Accelerator aura was violet rather than red (although it is possible this may also have been due to the demonic influence of Atun). His esper abilities derive from the exploitation of his mutant nature, with him being referred to as the "intentional mutant" class in the prequel light novel. This OVA incarnations of Apollo, Helena, and presumably the other Mythos cyborgs also fall under this classification. History Like his teammate Abel and his twin sister Eva, Seth was born in a secret Black Ghost facility within Canada and was specifically developed by Black Ghost to be part of an esper line as well as the High-Teen Number cyborgs. He wound up sickly and in a coma, and exploited by Black Ghost for their ultimate plan in experimentation that had been forbidden for the first 00 line. This plan would be that of the "Cyborg Daemon", a perfect cyborg host that could survive being merged with a demon. Dr. Adams would choose him as the test subject, along with a demon named Atun. Eva would fall into despair over her brother's condition and would set out for Japan, enrolling as a transfer student at a local high school. After befriending Miki Makimura, she opted to abduct her as part of the Black Ghost plans, and as a way to lure Akira Fudo and Ryo Asuka out to the Black Ghost base where her brother was being held. In Dr. Adams' view, he had given Eva hope that the demon remodeling would wake up her brother and cure him. But this plan's true intent was revealed when the conscious Seth wound up overtaken by Atun, which was in Adams' intent all along. This would also be Adams' downfall, as the Atun-influenced Seth would proceed to dispose of his creator via breaking his neck. He would then injure his sister, before fully transforming into Atun. During a battle against Devilman and 009, Atun would be hit by a ball filled with mental suggestions and shockwaves. This would seemingly detransform him into Seth, but he would soon reveal that he had actually evolved into Azazel, a higher form of demon, and proceeded to slaughter 0017, 0016, and 0014. As the battle raged on, Eva sought the assistance of 001 to help her reach Azazel in astral projecting her out of her body. The gestalt would then be confronted by Eva, and it was then that Seth's soul would be successfully and finally be separated from Atun, with him effectively passing on as his physical body regained the form of the demon. Atun's devolved body would then be incinerated by 009 and Devilman. In the wake of the battle, Eva had passed away from a combination of overusing her power and her injuries, following her brother in death. Notes *Seth's design was inspired by Ishinomori's character of Jun, who was a young alter-ego character modeled after the teenage Ishinomori and who appeared in the series Fantasy World Jun, Blue Zone, Agartha, 7P, and The Magical World of Jun, as well as an artbook detailing illustrations from various Ishinomori series that would depict Jun wandering through. Jun had previously appeared in animated form in the Toei film The Age of the Great Dinosaurs, which had been written and directed by Ishinomori. **Characters modeled after Jun would also appear in the Cyborg 009 series itself, such as Philippe in The People Drifting Between Space and Time, and Masato Hayase's design for Alain Deneuve in Joe Onodera's version of Conclusion GOD'S WAR. *Seth's silver hair comes from how the Jun character's hair would sometimes appear as such in illustrations, or as a somewhat darker gray (although instances of blond and brown-haired Juns did also occur). *As with Cain and Abel, Seth's name comes from the Bible, where the character of Seth was the third son of Adam and Eve, born after Abel's murder. His containment tube in episode 2 reads Set, which is the original Hebrew reading of the name. *Though unnamed in the OVA, the "Azazel" name for the gestalt comes from the official soundtrack. *The "Azazel" name refers to a fallen angel from the Book of Enoch, where he corrupted mankind by teaching the secrets of warfare, deception, and witchcraft. He is depicted as the personification of impurity, and also the subject of the "Day of Atonement" ritual, where the high priest would confess the people's sins onto a young goat before releasing it into the wild. Lastly, Azazel is a Hebrew word (עֲזָאזֵל), meaning "strong or mighty mountain", denoting his great strength among the angels, but his name is also possibly connected to the fallen angels Uza and Azael, who both committed the sin of fornication with human women. *As with the artbook for the OVA, early character concept art shows 0018 to be present in a High-Teen Number cyborg uniform, although the early design for the uniform had the red and white portions reversed and the overall design being similar to the original manga 00 cyborg uniforms, simply with the addition of glowing white seams all over it and red buttons on the knee and toe portions of the boots. External Links Visit the Devilman wiki. Category:Antagonists Category:Cyborg 009 vs. Devilman Category:Black Ghost Category:Cyborgs Category:High Teen Number Cyborgs Category:Male characters Category:Psychics Category:Deceased Characters